Vic Labor likely to hold government: poll

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews appears set to win the next state election a Newspoll shows.

Victoria's Labor government is leading the polls to retain power at the next state election.

The survey of 1268 voters put Labor at 52 per cent against the Liberal-National coalition on 48 per cent, on a two-party preferred basis.

But Premier Daniel Andrews said the poll result was no certainty of holding government.

"I've never taken anything for granted in this job, it's a great gift and that's why we work so hard every day to get things done," he told reporters.

Mr Andrews is the preferred premier of 41 per cent of voters, compared to Liberal leader Matthew Guy's 30 per cent, the Newpoll published in The Australian on Thursday found.

"Let's be realistic here, the December Essential (poll) had us 51 ahead, the Galaxy (poll) had us 50/50, this one has us slightly behind," Mr Guy told reporters.

"In the run up to the election there's going to be polls where we're ahead and polls where we're behind and it's just another one of those.

"It's going to be competitive, I've said that for some time."

Voters did, however, ping the government on gang violence with 65 per cent saying it must do more to tackle crime.

Asked which major party was better at dealing with law and order issues, 42 per cent of voters backed the opposition with 37 per cent for Labor.

The coalition has been focusing on law and order issues in recent months, with Mr Guy proposing a string of policies including forcing criminal teenagers into mandatory drug and alcohol treatments and setting up a serious sex offenders public register.